Commentary

CBS’s Moonves: I enjoyed Leno debacle

Commentary: He loves topping ‘Darth Vader,’ aka NBC

By

JonFriedman

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — As you might expect, Leslie Moonves, the president and chief executive of CBS Corp., is extremely competitive. Exactly how competitive, though?

Moonves couldn’t suppress his pleasure about the public discomfort that rival NBC
CMCSA, -0.26%
experienced a few years ago, when NBC replaced Conan O’Brien with Jay Leno at 11:35 p.m., prompting a very public outburst from the furious O’Brien and a messy fight over the coveted late-night time slot.

While plenty of CEOs would use a platitude to comment on an opponent’s woes, Moonves charged ahead during an interview with Gerard Baker, the deputy editor-in-chief of The Wall Street Journal at The Journal’s monthly “Viewpoints” series of breakfast interviews with business leaders. Moonves smiled and said: “I’d be lying if I didn’t say I enjoyed every (day) of the Leno debacle.”

Of course, Moonves’s foes must have done their share of chortling over the years. Remember when Charlie Sheen, self-destructed while he starred on CBS’s “Two and Half Men”? More recently, Angus T. Jones, who has played Jon Cryer’s son on that same popular situation comedy, made headlines when he recently declared that the show was “filth” and that people shouldn’t watch it. (Jones subsequently issued an apology for his remarks.)

Moonves, slyly noting that Jones still collected his $300,000-a-week pay, said that after weathering the Sheen meltdown, the Jones diatribe was a “piece of cake.”

His competitive instincts helped to lift CBS
CBS, -3.49%
from last place to first among television networks in the past decade. Moonves apparently hasn’t lost any of his edge.

“I still get up at 5 in the morning” and look right away at the television ratings, he said.

And he still participates in CBS production meetings and winces whenever his subordinates make errors that he could have averted. “That kills me,” he said.

CBS

‘CSI’ has been a strong performer for CBS,

Even now, Moonves can’t — or won’t try to — disguise his satisfaction at topping NBC. Once, NBC looked like such a villain to him he called it the “Darth Vader” of TV networks.

As an indication of Moonves’s success at the helm, the CBS share price is up 31% year to date versus 12% for the benchmark Standard & Poor’s 500 index
SPX, +0.01%

As Moonves told investment professionals at a Goldman Sachs conference in September: “We are the least sexy network. We get less buzz. All we do is get more viewers and make more money.”

CBS’s top new shows this season are “Vegas,” a drama about a real-life sheriff’s fight to end corruption in Las Vegas in the 1960s, and “Elementary,” a modern take on Sherlock Holmes in New York City.

Despite his progress at CBS, Moonves can’t control the steady decline in viewers’ interest in watching network TV shows. Such cable shows as AMC’s “Mad Men” and Showtime’s “Homeland” have been described as the most exciting recent TV dramas. (Luckily for Moonves, Showtime is owned by CBS.)

Moonves said he expects to see people increasingly watching TV shows on computers and mobile devices. Computers and TV screens “will be the same thing,” he predicted,” noting that viewers will take advantage of their ability to watch TV shows at all times of the day and night, thanks to the DVR and other innovations.

But he insisted that there will always be a place for a TV network such as CBS. There will always be “a network schedule of some kind,” pointing out that most people prefer not to watch such live shows as sports events after they have aired.

Moonves said he expects CBS to be No. 1 — or “darned close” to it — “for the next 10 years.”

How does Moonves intend to keep CBS ahead of the pack?

Stressing the importance of keeping his pipeline of popular programs filled season after season, he said he doesn’t simply manage quarter by quarter. “I think three years down the line.”

He noted that a mistake that NBC made, which made it vulnerable to CBS’s charge, was that NBC “didn’t replenish” its roster of hit shows.

When he took charge of CBS, Moonves knew it would take time for CBS to make its mark. He did it “one brick at a time,” starting with a hit like “Everybody Loves Raymond” and advancing to “Survivor” and then rolling out the network’s durable “CSI” franchise.

He tries to make sure his shows reek of vitality, Moonves doesn’t want viewers to whisper that a CBS offering, even a very popular one, has lost its fastball.

He said he’d prefer to cancel a CBS show “one year early rather than one year late.”

Moonves also has a progressive attitude about the new technology that would seem to threaten the popularity and immediacy of the television-watching experience. Now, viewers can watch programs whenever they want and not only when the networks schedule them to be aired.

“Technology is our friend,” Moonves stressed. “We welcome every form of technology — DVR, TiVo, iTunes, streaming. We’re a content company. Our goal is to produce great content — and get paid for it.”

As I noted in an Oct. 3 Media Web column, CBS owns about 75% of its content, and has been America’s most-watched network for the past decade as it reaches an average of about 12 million viewers a night. Last week, “Big Bang Theory,” “2 Broke Girls,” “Two and a Half Men,” and “Mike & Molly” were among its top-rated shows. Read “Moonves and CBS look sexy to Wall Street.”

By having a large stable of popular TV shows, CBS can continually ring up solid revenue numbers. The network can sell the rights to broadcast the shows on new-media platforms all over the world. Moonves said CBS is particularly excited about its growth prospects in Asia, South America and Eastern Europe.

Consider that the beloved CBS program “I Love Lucy,” thanks to its timeless appeal, continues to amass $20 million each year in revenue for CBS.

How will things turn out down the road when we confront unforeseen changes in television technology and viewing habits?

“In any universe, CBS wins,” Moonves said. “That’s always my answer.”

MEDIA WEB QUESTION OF THE DAY: What do you like or dislike about television programs today?

Intraday Data provided by SIX Financial Information and subject to terms of use.
Historical and current end-of-day data provided by SIX Financial Information.
All quotes are in local exchange time. Real-time last sale data for U.S. stock quotes reflect trades reported through Nasdaq only.
Intraday data delayed at least 15 minutes or per exchange requirements.